Swan and the Augur
by Zinchronic
Summary: When the last remnant of an endangered alien civilization wakes from aeons of dark slumber, him and a mysterious entity born of the Light are the only thing standing between the extinction of an entire civilization.
1. Chapter 1: Dreams of the cold Deep

Swan and The Augur

Chapter I: Dreams Of The Cold Deep

They sway in the wind. The bindtrees that release their lucid spores like a million shimmering stars, covering the metallic shapes of the copper plain into a shimmer of colours, reflections and dance of shapes. These memories of sights and sounds, all converging into a reality of maps and pathways. The life and joy of Warumathan explorers. Places unseen, places hidden. All of it requires unveiling, the peeling of a cosmic picture. Everything.

It's all in ancient past. In memories as old as the bindtrees, call of Sakhrekan flies and the earliest of Augurs. My consciousness lives these final moments of pleasant memories and matter. I wish not to remember what made me retreat into this. I wish my dreams remained pleasant for all eternity. It is not like this. It will never be like this. _They came and they won_. Maimed, tortured and killed our kin beyond recognition. Twisted, malformed. Black sap bleeds and all is ash.

 _"Augur... Augur?"_ A chirping sound of familiar warmth penetrates the bleak visage.

Visions of light and cubic shapes of familiar origin form in my mind. The beam of light penetrates my very being, cutting through me like the sharpest of spears.

 _"Such a ridiculous layer of blood ice! Try to hang in there!"_ the sounds continue.

Dreams have never spoken, neither communed. The true dark never claimed its prize. This is no dream. My consciousness is called back from it's slumber.

 _"Ah, i'm finally detecting all forms of ionic activity. It's time to wake up, Augur!"_ the voice keeps reciting.

Wake up. The feeling of haze subsides and memories that were locked in a deep morass return to my being. Eternal sleep was to be a fate, yet it's averted. The children of Great Light have found me.

 _"Now, now. Try not to move anything. Your servos and all major systems are going to have to through extensive testing now."_ the Child speaks.

 _"What a mess! When i regained consciousness, i found myself lying dead in the middle of a metallic trash heap in the Oilen sea. It feels like nobody even knows what to do with us anymore, such rude behaviour!"_ the chatty Child exclaims.

It speaks the truth. My frontal limbs, three arms and my ear antennae all feel catatonic. The child produces hums of energy and warmth. _"_

 _This should work as a pick me up!"_ the Child proudly states.

As my consciousness takes form, the Child keeps scanning my wrecked visage and quietly then turns it's lithe frame, as if to gaze into the darkness beyond my vision.

 _"Eumrethar. I knew they are drawn to energy signatures, but to acknowledge our presence so quickly... We need to hide!"_ the Child urgently beeps.

 _"Please... Where are..."_ my rusty vocal faculties begin to rasp my tongue of old.

The cubic Child quickly registers my attempts at communication and comes closer, almost as if attempting to whisper.

 _"Look. Augur, you have been defunct for 89 cycles. Me and many others scoured the surface, moons and megastructures for your kind because we might have a chance to save whatever is left of this world. Your kind are immeasurably precious."_

As the breath of creation returns to me, my arms move, my legs and appendages follow my will. I stretch them all, as if to remember the first time i transcended my biological form.

" _A weapon. Give me a weapon."_ I groan with my yet stifled voice.

 _"Now, i don't think that's a..."_ The Child intervenes. I break it's attempts at protest.

 _"I go into battle against the enemy with spear and claw, or_ _I_ _give_ _myself to death at their hands. No honor comes in battle not fought on equal terms. My cowering is over."_ I exclaim. Such a display leaves the Child bewildered.

It quickly seeks its surroundings and then produces something rudimentary via the ancient technology of matter transportation.

 _"This is the best i can do. It's the only thing i can produce."_ it chirps while producing an ancient axion spear.

 _"Oh! and Augur. Please, call me a Ghost."  
_

 _"Agreed. Let us go. The sacred rites of survival have come. Let us meet them with pride and joy."_


	2. Chapter 2: Eumrethar

_Chapter II: Eumrethar_

Derelict mechanical Isopoda, noxious soups of ancient fossilic fuels and scrap had claimed the pathways which had once formed the labyrinthine "Underworld" of the Warumathan homeworld. The glory of an ancient, mechanical civilization and its wonders had now been reduced to an engine of filth and decay. Life reduced to a struggle for survival amongst creations and creatures whose sole purpose for existence was to outmatch their enemies. Sometimes this involved bigger and more destructive weapons, at other times the sharpest fangs and predatory insticts served the Warumathan armies just the same.

Augur sped through the familiar vents and pathways, feeling the walls and vibrations like his own beating heart. A ripple of tiny vibration stops him dead on his tracks, throwing up his segmented arm to push his ghost aside.

 _"Six of them, Akreihnli_ _I'l. War Hunters"_ he mentioned to the ghost. The ghost's expressionless chassis turns into a wildly gesturing mess of distress at the mere mention.

 _"You are out of your mind, Augur!"_ says the ghost.

Augur held his spear up and with a slight gesture of fingers and appendages, produces the void-laced blade. Augur felt the grip and the ornate designs carved into its frame.

 _"It is such an ancient weapon, Ghost. Such make has not been seen since Forgesmith Aeglanhis moulted."_ Augur explained.

The ghost however is almost wholly absorbed in the dim hallway ahead, where everything living was now fleeing into the smaller passageways and narrow ventilations in its brass walls.

 _"This is a bad idea, a really, really bad idea."_ Ghost lamented.

Augur lifted himself more firmly into the darkened hallway.

 _"Get into the shafts and hide. Your presence will compromise us. Their stench carry in the walls and I respond in kind. Go!"_ Augur said, while pointing an open drainage to the ghost with one of his appendages.

Ghost watched in horror as a variety of machine organisms feeding on the remnants of fossilic substances and glimmer skittered further into the pipes.

 _"There better not be any monsters in here Augur. I mean it! I'd rather not have myself eaten by some form of festering polyp."_ Ghost protested from within the pipe before falling silent.

Augur finally melted into the passageway, feeling his primordial instincts take over almost subconsciously. His entire race evolved in such conditions. Narrow and dark caves, rich with game and life. The pulse of movement could be felt in the walls, rhytmic echoes of metal and steps. Augur closed his six eyes, reminiscing the time on his hunts and life of exploration. The Gliding City was a home and refuge, a shifting harbour of safety and wonder that changed location and shape like the winds on the surface. The long cycles of exploration and movements of the city were like a grand dance of the celestial objects, moons locked in tidal orbits. Time is up.

Augur thrusted his spear forcefully underneath himself, pinning a sickly blackened mechanical canine creature to the ground. Silence was paramount, thus Augur quickly silenced it by ripping off its vocal faculties with his left appendage and tossed the vile contraption into another pathway as a lure. The movement was almost immidiately followed by hastened noise and reactions, the predators were on the move. The guttural cries of the Eumrethar heralded the arrival of the pack. Augur slid and squeezed himself almost motionlessly into one of the smallest crevices in the pathway, arriving into a bronze clearing with a spill of fossilic oil blanketing the floor, which flowed like a river to a dark chasm below. Every moment was crucial. Augur folded his appendages, took the spear into stance and prepared. Much like him, the Eumrethar slinked in shadows of the underground. The forgesmiths built the Eumrethar aeons ago from the greatest wisdoms of Warumathan trackers, scouts and hunters. Augur felt movement to his left, the canine monstrosity reeled out a lengthy, wiry black tongue. Coiling and whipping for an opening the left Eumrethar was soon joined by its right counterpart. Augur kept a firm and open stance, he knew it was all a diversion. A clever ploy. Eumrethar were scavengers, their kind slinked and circled their prey, never truly engaging it. It was always the alpha that destroyed the enemy. The awaited signal was there, all of Augur's synapses fired from his appendages behind his back and he scraped the flooring with his appendages metallic end, producing sparks.

The oil caught fire in an instant, filling the darkness with bright and blinding light. The spill caught one of the Eumrethars tongues and it retreated into the darkness in haste that resembled outright panic. Augur lunged forward and gracefully seperated his other assailaints head from its segmented armor, while gracefully lifting it behind his back with his appendages. He tossed himself on the ground with the body of his adversary still turned on his back. The piercing tongue from above rained piercing blows on the lifeless metallic carcass, drawing black fluids from its body. Augur extended his appendages to the darkness above and pulled with all his might. What tumbled down was an Eumrethar so old its plates had moulted in variety of rusts, mold and puncture holes. The size of the creature was easily three times the average. An apex predator at it's finest.

The Eumrethar tried to fight itself back on all four feet, but Augur pressed it towards the edge of the chasm waiting at the end of the clearing by shielding himself from claws and tongues with the battered shell of his former adversary. The alpha quickly began realizing its position and it started to thrash and flail itself loose from the Augur's trap. It all resulted in vain, as thrashing made it claw itself deeper into the innards of its pack member. The push towards the edge was followed by a shrieking will to live. The Augur gathered his might for one last push and let loose with his appendages, tossing the alpha into the depths below, which was now a roiling pit of oil. Dangerous gambit, but such is survival. You outwit, outlast and outfight your opponents until they cannot fight back without dangerous struggles. The rest of the pack soon dispersed back into the darkness after the alpha's screeching from the depths below subsided.

" _Augur."_ a familiar voice chimed in from behind him.

 _"You led us this way on purpose, didn't you?"_ Ghost questioned.

Augur relaxed his entire body and sat down on the scrap heap next to the flowing river of fiery oil.

 _"Yes, the oilen sea was less than two rotations from where I had laid my blood cocoon to slumber."_ Augur replied. Ghost took a look down into the dimly lit chasm.

 _"Fighting on familiar territory? I knew your people had prowess, but nothing in my data ever even showed the slightest note of navigational data due to the shifting nature of this part of the Underworld."_ Ghost said.

It turned to Augur and looked it in the eyes. _"How do you navigate?"_ It asked.

" _Feeling."_ Augur answered.


	3. Chapter 3: Oilen Sea

Chapter III: Oilen Sea

" _Believe in a place full of pure hearts, where no one rules but the just. Fear disappears when trust, forges its own path."_ Augur hummed, as he strapped a cloak made of bindfibers on his shoulders.

Places of refuge were far and wide between in places like the Methrican Divide or Caurceron territory. Methrican was infamous for its vast migrational cycles that passed through deadly barrier storms and Caurceron meant nothing but trouble, it was a place of fear and terror even before the Final War.

" _Songs about refuge?"_ Ghost beeped, while curiously chiming in a comment about the Augur's break into song. _"_

 _Yes. Hope and trust."_ Augur answered.

Augur strapped his spear on his back with the help of a leash made of Eumrethar tongue wiring.

" _So I take it were heading to the Junkyard?"_ Ghost inquired.

Augur lowered his hands and with a single motion, silenced the bind lights of his temporary refuge.

 _"Yes. The oath our kin swore was to guard it for as long as the Exalted return in the case of an extinction event."_ Augur explained.

The path ahead was now a streaming sewage system of oil, fossilic fuels and derelict scrap. When the vast Underworld was built, its architects designed the great machines who toiled its shape, only for the machines to dispose of themselves into the great pit. Methrican Divide. A sea of oil and scrap, vast and large as the widest of oceans on the surface. Augur beheld the sight of the ocean from a large opening in a sewage pipe, high above the divide. Occasional roars of flame and fire could be observed from his perch, a normal phenomena in such volatile environment. They were great landmarks, as most were lit to either serve as beacons or producing light. The Final War had laid the great lights of the Underworld into disrepair aeons ago, which made the Warumathans seek alternate means. Bind technology and campfires allowed for rudimentary luminescence in such an age. It was still a sight that warmed Augur's weary mind. Life still continued in the depths, no matter how small or broken. Much had survived and still endured.

" _You have a plan to get yourself down there, Augur?"_ the Ghost quizzed while staring down at the vast sea below.

 _"Yes, but I suggest that you ride ahead. Ghost."_ Augur answered.

He produced what looked like a brightly luminescent sphere from one of his bags and placed it on gently on the ground. He kneeled before it, placing two of his hands and a vast majority of his appendages on the sphere. Concentration, delving into deep secrets and minds. Life, there was life. A surge of warmth traveled through Augur, he reached out and life answered. He released the sphere, placed it back in his bag and started to scan the horizon. Silence permeated the darkness ahead, but it was soon broken by a shrill sound and what could be only described as frantical beating of wings. Augur was filled with joy, they were still alive.

A majestic glow started to close in and it shimmered and reflected like a dance of lights and shapes. A mechanical being with beautiful, insectile wings flew towards the pipe, its haltere gracefully guiding it into a still flight in front of the pipe. It hovered and extended a variety of appendages towards Augur while its manifold eyes scanned and watched expectantly. Augur responded in kind and reached out with his appendages, coiling and touching the beast almost as if caressing it.

 _"You have gone through such terrible and dark things. Do not worry, you're safe."_ Augur reassured the beast, almost whispering.

The creature soon attached its powerful legs on the edge of the pipe and climbed its way inside, humorously hanging from the pipe upside down. Augur started to mount his numerous belongings on the huge insect.

 _"Ghost. Get to the junkyard and prepare the data founts, what remains of the Exalted and our kin need to be awakened. My Sakhrekan will carry me with haste, but I need eyes on the ground, in case the Darkness still inhabits the sea."_ Augur said while attaching his hands on sockets at the side of the mechanical beast.

He extended his appendages and coiled one of them into a socket at the back of its head.

" _Fly."_ Augur's thought whispered and the insect responded in kind, kicking itself off the edge of the pipe and freedove closer towards the surface of the sea, before catching wind with its wings, accelerating it into a forward motion.

Augur had missed such a feeling, the feeling of flying. He thought of a destination and the insect slowly started correcting its bearing. The journey to recovery had finally begun.


	4. Chapter 4: Source Code

Chapter IV: Source Code

" _Tharsis Junction, Tharsis Junction."_ the announcement declared.

A woman with long, auburn hair fiddled her bag and straightened her violet skirt before stepping out onto the platform, trying to dodge and squirm her way through the crowd of morning workers. After the rush had subsided, she started scanning the platform with her hand firmly flattened and placed on her forehead, as if to shield herself from unseen rays of sunlight. She quickly found what she was looking for. A bearded man in a black leather jacket, smoking on a bench. He was almost adamantly starting into space. She waved with a slight smile on her face and began to walk over. The man relaxed his tense demeanor and put out the cigarette into a nearby trash can.

 _"I'm sorry, the trains are running so late. I..."_ the woman apologetically stuttered.

The man stood up, his entire six and a half feet body extending to offer a strong and determined handshake. "Paul _Swan."_ he said in a voice that was way too gentle for a man of such stature. The woman grasped his hand with her lithe fingers and shook it.

 _"Elena Bray, it's a pleasure!"_ she said, while offering a warm and pleasant smile.

Swan took his carton of cigarettes from the bench and began to walk with Elena towards the stairs leading off the platform.

" _I take it you read the files by now?"_ Elena said.

 _"Yes, atleast the key parts."_ Swan answered.

He took a data pad out from his pocket and projected a holo-display. It featured a spherical object, hovering above the Earth.

 _"What info my people were able to get from the council and currently standing Speaker was that the Traveler was very keen to the plan"_ Swan said while gesturing at the hologram.

They soon sat down into a caféteria, where Swan placed the hologram on the table.

 _"Most importantly, according to the Speaker the Traveler outright personally asked that you escalate the research into transhumanism."_ Swan said with a smile on his face. Elena gasped and broke into a beaming smile.

 _"You're serious? What about the other Foundations?"_ Elena asked.

 _"Ishtar continues their research into Vex studies. The foundries and a variety of manufacturing facilities have been largely funneled to support in your endeavours."_ Swan answered.

Swan lit another one of his cigarettes and then continued. _"Whatever the case Elena, you've got your funding, researchers and facilities for all this."_

" _I'm curious though, why is the Traveler choosing me and now of all times?"_ Elena asked.

Swan leaned a bit closer and placed his cigarette to rest on the edge of an ash tray. Swan's demeanor changed to seriousness, his eyes projecting worry.

 _"It's leaving the system. The Speaker said that it had made its decision and considering your efforts, it spoke of continuing the work of prolonging life after the Beacons are built."_ Swan said and then grabbed Elena's hand.

Elena blushed profusely and shied away from Swan's gaze.

 _"Look, you need to understand. There was another request too. It was specifically for me, Elena."_ Swan said while continuing to grasp her gentle fingers.

 _"I'm dying. The Speaker said that anything the Traveler or modern medicine would do was already too late."_ Swan released Elena's hands and picked up the cigarrette and with a sigh inhaled more smoke. Swan exhaled slowly and then spoke calmly.

 _"It's a condition called motor neurone disease. MND for short. Modern medicine has alleviated most of my muscular atrophy, but my body will be spent at the age of 162."_ Swan said and stumped his cigarette. _"Its terminal, has been for centuries."_ Swan continued.

" _Look Elena. I'm already a dead man walking. I want you to do this."_ Swan said and opened her a set of medical files via his data pad, sliding it into her lap.

" _I'll be the first volunteer for your Exo project. Elena."_


	5. Chapter 5: Remains

Chapter V: Remains

Massive, shifting continents of brass and metal. Floating above the sea, like black clouds, covering the abyss below them in monolithic shadows. Augur gracefully guided his companion through pathways, cracks and valleys of metal and machine, all while keeping his senses tuned to the sea below. The darkness claimed vast swathes of the sea during the Final War, driving a vast part of the Warumathan regiments into hiding among the scrapyards and continents littering the Methrican divide. It was a potent guerilla tactic for his people. While the enemy would be occupied with flushing the Warumathan armies out of hiding, a continuous mobile flying regiment kept sabotaging enemy attempts and picking off small detachments of enemy ground presence. The tactic had proved its superiority during the violent Caurceron rebellions, which had also fueled the push for vast militarization throught the planet. As a result militarization was likely the only reason Warumatha still stood, even in the state it was.

Augur caught the signs. A shift within the murky veils. He focused all his efforts into diving down towards the darkness below. Once he broke through the smog, he finally saw it. A colossal corpse of a machine god that once fought in the divide. It was easily the most monumental of losses during the war, its life and energy spent on warding off invaders coming to claim the depths. Now it lay silent, as did most of the sea. Prior to the extinction protocols, the designated rally for all Warumathan military was within the machine and its ruined husk. Even after all true life had left its body, it still watched over his people. Augur looked for a way to fly into its cranial cavities, which served as an old command center. Left behind, it might still hold energy in it. Augur landed near the reddish socket of a punctured, massive mechanical eye.

He dismounted his fly and sent it scurrying back into the darkness with a slight tap from his hand. He then reached into one of his many backs and produced the white sphere again. He clutched it with both hands and placed it in a metallic, spherical socket on a small apparatus attached near the many mechanical parts of the eye. The eye slightly sputtered to life, turning one of its massive lenses to open a pathway within.

Augur soon sensed a familiar presence approaching from the direction of the sea. The ghost he had met was speeding closer, shimmering light around it like a searchlight and soon stopped to poke around and scan the eye.

 _"Well, the good news is that the sea most definitely has been abandoned by pretty much everything and anything sentient."_ Ghost said while producing a primitive three dimensional map of the sea.

 _"The bad news is that this pretty much means that everything that survived likely has never arrived here or made for the surface."_ Ghost continued and showed a variety of exit paths and mappings on towards the higher layers of the Underworld.

 _"The Gliding City is still in migration and considering it was most certainly sacked, that leaves us with only your Exalted and whatever remnants still cling to the surface."_ Ghost continued with an exasperated tone.

" _It is enough. If even one of my kind survives, we have averted parts of this catastrophy."_ Augur replied and stepped inside the derelict god.

Darkness permeated the metallic cave, making navigation inside difficult and dangerous.

" _Allow me!"_ Ghost joyfully stated and started shining a white and bright light inside.

The light produced a vast amount of skittering, crawling and noise inside as the wildlife fled from the light.

" _Hello! Anyone home?"_ Ghost hollered into the empty cavern, while scanning intently.

He took a small flight further inside and returned closer to the entrance, where Augur had taken a few steps inside and prepared his spear.

"It's clear, get in." Ghost said and gestured Augur to follow.

Not soon after, the massive lens started to close behind them and left them in the darkness within.

Augur started to recollect what hazy memories he had of the location. This was the place where the Warumathans had made their last stand. It was just as much a fortress, as it was a tomb. Augur shifted through a variety of corpses littering the cavity. Warumathan, Caurceron, Hive Knight plating and derelict Vex harpies cluttered the ground. Decay and scavenging automatons had destroyed much. Augur kneeled in front of the knight and started shifting through the pile of ash and chitin it had left behind.

 _"Ghost."_ Augur called and produced its helmet, tossing it closer to Ghost with one of his appendages.

 _"Scan it."_ he continued and kept shifting through the other corpses.

 _"Markings indicate one of the Conqueror fleets, Augur. I cannot make out an approximate age, but we can safely consider thousands of cycles."_ Ghost said and curiously followed Augur's actions.

 _"Auryx?"_ Augur asked, while peeling off a small fragment off one of the harpies eyes.

 _"No, markings indicate Savathûn."_ Ghost rectified and scanned another corpse.

 _"Curse that Krill witch and her entire brood. Xivu Arath and Auryx atleast were content with facing our fleet and troops with dignity during the Ecumene war."_ Augur reminisced and put the harpy eye in his backpack.

" _Its one thing to clash forces, but fighting your enemy with curses of poison and deceit is a world I cannot begin to understand."_ Augur said and closed his eyes and hung his head.

" _Maybe that's why we lost in the first place."_ he remarked morbidly.


	6. Chapter 6: Heidelberg

Chapter VI: Heidelberg

" _As of today, dignitaries of the RFBA, Russian minister of foreign affairs Abram Ilyushin, delegates from the UN and elected officials appointed by the speaker entered into negotiations concerning the repurpose and renovation of the Baikonur Cosmodrome facilities."_ A voice speaking in german emanated from the small device on top of a night table. Swan used his wrist watch to control the volume levels of the news, trying to pick up the latest headlines.

" _Although details prior to the negotiations have been sparse, experts are flashing possibilities of mending the_ 20th _century facilities into possible planetary defense arrays, mostly in accordance to the 24... conven..."_ the voice said, before the volume trailed off.

Only footsteps and the cold beeping of a EKG monitor filled the white room. The footsteps took shape, as a bubbly blonde nurse arrived and carried a small bouquet of blue flowers and a remote used to control the many aspects of Swan's room. She had rudely turned the radio off.

" _We have a delivery for you, Herr Swan"_ she fluttered. Placing the flowers in a neat setting near the window-sill. She then turned on her heels and used the remote to slowly lift the hospital bed to a position that supported Swan in a way that made sitting more comfortable. Swan peeked at the flowers and then spoke to the nurse.

" _So, I take it that Dr. Jansing still adamantly protests my wishes to have a smoke. Right?"_ he said.

" _Now now, Herr Swan. We'll refrain from starting this again. The rules were made perfectly clear when we admitted you. Any form of..."_ the nurse said while she was cut off by Swan.

" _Any form of activity that might hamper your physical conditioning is prohibited, due to possible complications with compatibility during future procedures. I know."_ he said while rolling his eyes and taking a deep sigh.

Swan kept eyeing towards the window-sill and the flowers. The beautifully blooming blue, bell-like flowers had now caught most of his attention. When small gusts of wind pushed through the window, he thought they may actually start chiming in beautiful melodies. It was a vain hope.

" _I take it the flowers are from my network of secret fans, right?"_ Swan said to the nurse with a wry smile. His hairless face and head now feeling more alien to himself as ever. They were the first things he had to sacrifice in his appearance during the years to come.

" _Dont be silly Herr Swan! They are from Frau Bray."_ she said while sliding a tray filled with medical equipment close to a stool she soon occupied.

" _Now roll up your sleeve."_ the nurse said gently, while producing a needle attached to a vacutainer from the tray.

Swan followed obidiently, it was now a daily routine. Endless tests, constant monitoring, strict diets and healthy habits. The transitionary phase was to be made from a very clear and healthy state of mind. Blood soon filled the vacutainer and the nurse removed the needle, while tapping a few screens on her datapad before attaching the tube to a sort of measuring apparatus.

" _Hmm, your hemoglobin values are a bit on the high side. This has been the case ever since your admittance though, so it is no cause for concern"_ she stated and placed a small patch of bandage and tape on the needle wound.

Swan groaned and found a more comfortable position to sit in while he followed through with the nurse and her exercise instructions.

" _Yeah, well. They always did call me Iron Man in the SAS."_ Swan scoffed while rolling his shoulders and stretching his arms around.

The nurse went through the motions and then took out a few notes on paper, which was a rarity in that age and time. It was likely the notes gathered for Dr. Jansing. Even for a man in his 200's, Jansing was a traditionalist of peerless measure. He wanted his notes on paper, his reference from physical books and he always had everything pinned on his office walls. It was an ironic gesture, considering the man himself was a cutting edge bio-engineering and cybernetics expert who had almost a hundred years of experience behind his youthful appearance.

Swan once again focused on the flowers. He knew the genus. Campanula, Campanula medium. Canterbury Bells. In flower language, it was a sign of gratitude, a very formal gesture in its own way. Mostly something that Swan would have expected from Elena, she wasn't the most comfortable with relations to people she didn't know too well.

" _I take it that 'Frau Bray' wont be gracing us with her presence until i'm shipped away from this prepatory?"_ Swan asked the nurse.

The nurse stopped fidgeting around her medical equipment tray and went silent. She reached out to her pockets and leaned closer to the bed.

" _Look, Herr Swan. Here."_ she said while producing what looked like a small data chip. She placed it in his hands and cupped her hands around his.

" _She asked me personally, Herr Swan."_ the nurse continued in a faltering tone. Swan looked her in the eye and saw only what could have been a speck of a tear.

" _She said that there would eventually be a day you outlive her. You see it, do you not Herr Swan? You will be the first human to live forever."_

Swan looked at the pad, while the nurse turned around to wipe her face with a tissue from the tray. There was something written in unknown script and a small scribble in english below it, forming the word "Stardust".

Swan didn't really find any words to speak that didn't feel forced. She knew Bray was eccentric and a genius, but leaving messages on data chips didn't seem like her.

" _It won't unlock until six thousand years in the future. Herr Swan."_ the nurse continued and produced a small, custom-built data terminal blueprint on her datapad. She then took the data chip back and placed it in her pocket again.

" _She said they will graft this to your skull. I shouldn't speak of this, but..."_ she saw herself off her stool and then corrected the flower arrangement again.

" _You also need to understand, Herr Swan. You will not remember this conversation. officially considering that, we might have never spoken at all. Faces and identities will be an alien concept for you for a very, very long time."_ the nurse said, walking to another bouquet, picking up one yellow bulby flower with a tag on it. The tag read "To Swan. From Elena Bray." The nurse placed it in the middle of the arrangement.

" _Goodbye, Herr Swan. It has been a pleasure."_ she said while bowing deeply.


	7. Chapter 7: Mind and Machine

Chapter VII: Mind and Machine

Dust, mold and metallic carrion spilled out of the creaking old doorhatch. Ghost shined piercing beams of light inside, shining off perpelexing reflections out of the almost dome-like space inside. The shuffling, skittering, metallic clangs and objects hitting hard surfaces made the Ghost shift his focus around the room, looking for threats. Content with the silence that followed, it quickly peered inside and started scanning. It found a curiously shaped metal pedestal, much like an ornate cup or table.

" _It's a fount!"_ Ghost chimed in to Augur.

Augur slowly dragged his frame through the hatch and joined the Ghost. He took all of his belongings, gathered throught their journey and laid them on the dusty floor. He started rummaging through the various makeshift bagpacks, straps and holsters.

" _Look, I can..."_ Ghost spoke, while facing the console in the middle of the structure.

Cut off in midsentence, Ghost watched in silence as the white sphere that Augur had carried within his belongings started floating in mid-air, much like the Ghost itself. As the sphere slowly floated towards the pedestal, Augur pulled the chipped Vex eye from another bag and placed it in his maw, crunching it into fine dust. He took a small tube-like container and placed one of his smaller helmet appendages inside. The reddish, diamond dust soon filled the container as the appendage leaked it into the tube. Augur sealed the tube with a wax he secreted from his maw and shook it slightly.

" _It isn't exactly pure, but it has to do."_ Augur murmured to himself.

Augur placed the tube in one of his holsters and then made his way to the console. He placed his hands on the sphere and pushed it down into a receptacle. The sphere fired into a varying stripes of light, splitting it into the pedestal. Augur gripped the sphere with a firmer hand, soon all of his helmet appendages started to flail wildly. The light in the sphere spread through the room, lighting up the dome into a wild array of almost holographic images of geometric shapes, inexplicable symbols and maps. The colours, vivid imagery and information assaulted Augur's senses, connecting his consciousness to the stream of data before him. He felt a slight skip in his senses as he was dragged into another place. A place removed of time and mind. He was now a mere digital being, a mote of light in a world that resembled nothing. In the whiteness before him lay a single, odd plant.

" _Augur!"_ It called in a familiar tone.

Augur approached the plant and noticed it glimmering in varying shades of blue and yellow into the empty white surrounding them. It was rather unsightly, a mere bushel of twigs and a variety of meaningless floral shapes.

" _Look, I know you would most likely want to take the form of some majestic creature or wise sage, but this is what you're gonna have to settle with for now."_ The plant continued, with it's overly familiar tone.

" _I'm running pretty short on energy and i'd rather not waste what little energy the beacon still gives my kind. So let's make this fast."_ The plant said while exploding into a variety of shapes.

The remnants projected themselves into maps and script into the whiteness surrounding it. The voice soon returned.

" _OK! Pulling what little I can from the Traverse reports and anything relating to The Lost, last entries have been made six cycles after Operation Final War."_

The white was soon filled with script, relating notes and a variety of patrol reports. All ended with heavy notes of casualties and withdrawal orders.

" _Pull me the last patrol report from Cycle 936:22, Ghost."_ Augur said, followed by an unseen force scrapping the rest of the documents into the white beyond.

The report contained a variety of data that was almost painfully corrupted or otherwise garbled in almost inexplicable data strings that made no sense.

" _Isolate keyword: Exalted."_ Augur continued and symbols highlighted within the sea of script and writing.

The notes mentioned a preservation protocol of blood ice cocoons in hidden arrays within a variety of locales in the Oilen sea and within the variety of facilities inside the hideout that Augur and Ghost had decided to salvage.

" _Upload the maps of the facility both to me and yourself and start looking for the cocoons."_ Augur said and lodged his consciousness out of the data stream.

He felt a familiar sense of displacement and then finally resettled into his being. After ensuring his chassis still worked, he stretched his body and then went back to his belongings. Augur dislodged the tube of Vex eye dust and pierced the wax seal with a needle shaped head appendage. The dust sprang to life, creating a wild display that resembled a chemical reaction. Augur then took the tube to another contraption near the walls of the domed facility, pushing the tubes tip into a slot located in a machine vividly displaying symbols and images. The contents of the tube quickly disappeared from sight into the slot. Crackling and metallic groaning filled the decrepit hallways. The lights in the dark hallways beyond the dome's hatch began to flicker and sputter into life.

" _That should power us for atleast a couple of rotations."_ Augur said and pressed himself into a dormant state, his being exhausted of the journey to get to this safe haven.

Ghost watched him drift off and then took off into the hallways, in search of their comrades.


	8. Chapter 8: Threshold

Chapter VIII: Threshold

Resilient winds tore through a forest of bindtrees in the valley below. Blue spores illuminated the path towards the radiating light shimmering from the northern beacon. The four moons up in the starlit sky pushed their light to the surface for first time in many cycles. The skyshield had been lowered and as such, the actual sight was rare. As according to legends, one of the moons had been torn to pieces. Another was pale and metallic, radiating peculiar light. Both peered from the sky as a remnant of ancient conflicts and pacts.

Mighty roars begun to gather around the Beacon, a beckoning call of wings, fangs and gnashing. The trip down to the valley was a perilous trek through the mountainside, a descent into the sea of trees below. Blue and white glow made it truly look like a shimmering lake of fireflies.

" _You seek the radiation and electric colours in these heights. A shelter?"_ questioned a gentle voice that seemed to radiate from the universe itself.

As wind blew ever fiercer, the roars echoing from the threshold of the Beacon stopped. Soon the valley fell silent and it was as all life stopped existing.

" _No. You're something else."_ the voice continued.

It was as if the picturesque scene unfolding ahead was painted. Time and existence felt meaningless

" _Your kind keep breaking all the limits. Experts on crossing to this threshold."_ the voice said.

Life returned to the silent scenery and from the heights of the beacon, something flew forth. Large, filled with teeth and wing. Its wings created a storm that almost tore valley into smithereens. The creature slithered its massive plated head forward and looked as if it sniffed the air.

" _Such resolve and fearlessness. We've had many, but..."_ the voice trailed off.

The monster soon slumped down from its four legs and tucked them underneath its massive body, stretching its peculiarly feathered wings.

" _It all begins within oneself. Like a flash that scares the dark. A spark threatening to become fire. Lights attracted by the gravity."_ it continued.

A massive exhale escaped its massive mouth, a sign of weariness. The monstrous creature next opened its two massive eyes and locked its eyes to the sky. Towards the metallic moon.

" _You will lead those who are lost, those who need refuge. As have all those before you."_ the voice explained.

It soon pushed its massive left wing closer to the ground, much like an inviting gesture.

" _We are leaving. We follow the Sky, our Guide. That is why you are the last. I grow older than the stars themselves."_ the voice continued in a tired tone.

The avian creature opened its mouth and a fang fell loose. Dropping on the ground, like a massive sword.

" _Your kind conquered death. We live another existence. You will understand in time, as have all the Augurs before you."_

A small breath escaped the creatures maw and no sooner the fang turned into a shimmering spear, clear as starlight and weightless like glass. The creature now lowered its wing all the way to the ground.

" _Carve it, carve it like those before you. This is how my mortal journey ends and your dark path begins."_

Blood, tearing of flesh and roaring followed as the ragged and thin flesh was torn asunder from its frame. What followed was a cacophony of monstrous wingbeats and screeching, as if the sky itself mourned the spectacle that unfolded.

" _My brethren shall dispose of my form, they will need the energy for the trials ahead..."_ the creature continued in a ragged voice.

It turned its head towards the torn piece of the wing and blew a gentle breath towards it again. The bindspores in the air attached to the torn ligaments and flesh and gave it form. A shimmering cloak, filled with engravings and patterns that were as a map of the unexplored cosmos.

" _When you are lost, cherish this flesh and let it lull you with confidence and safety. My blood will light the way through the darkest of ages. Oh bearer mine..."_

The smaller figures from the sky swooped town and began to tear at the creature, the gory spectacle that unfolded left nothing but bones.

A jolt ran through Augur's body shaking him back to reality. He saw the familiar shapes of data streams and the dome that contained them. He gripped his worn and torn cloak tighter than ever.


	9. Chapter 9: Exalted

Chapter IX: Exalted

The lower reaches of the cavities were treacherous. The cavities that didn't have their lights still active and the pathways that obviously weren't meant for traversing on foot made it hard to make progress without better light. As a result Ghost had also grown especially fond of replicating noises it picked up from a variety of predators during its travels, it comfortably scared away all sorts of scavengers.

The lower confines of the cavities were a mess of sludgy machinery, pools of oil and a maze of pathways that followed no coherent logic. The innards of a titanic warmachine didn't exactly come with a clear map, which made Ghost guess paths via finding areas that still rerouted power. To its large dismay, such areas in the lower levels were very far apart and finding any signs of larger power spikes beyond repair drones, lighting and couplings felt like a monumentally futile task.

Was there truly even anything alive down here? What little signatures were given didn't give the Ghost much to go on. Possibilities of hibernating Warumathans still stuck within such a dark dungeon felt like a slim hope. Ghost dived deeper down a pipelike structure, wrapped in thick and darkened cables, which almost resembled tree trunks. Ghost scanned the cables and found peculiar signals. It was not simply a single source, it was as if the cables had a source that transmitted a massive chunk of data. Ghost did what it felt was the right decision. It locked to the source of the signal and beelined to follow the cables. The vast chasms, ever tightening narrow passageways that housed the cables and lightless corridors blanketed its journey.

Before long, larger bundles of the cables started coming together all emitting the same peculiar signals, all from different sources. Or at the very least, sources that had no conscise origin. Was this all really set in motion by reigniting the power? Ghost finally gave no mind to anything except the end point. The mouth, much like how a river always flowed to a single, larger body of water. The cables soon multiplied to tens and some of their sizes were even larger. Going through a last pipeline, the cables converged into a pathway so narrow and dark that the Ghost had to squeeze through it.

Ghost popped into a cavity so dark and dusty, it had to shine lights across its entirety. Places like this were to be expected, all lighting and machinery had most likely failed. The crushing amounts of oil that leaked into the giant kept conviniently disrupting any and all forms of hope that many areas would have access to safe passage. Ghost looked towards the walls and saw that the larger cables now split into ever larger numbers. What it caught in its sensors next freezed it on its tracks.

" _Augur. You read me, Augur?"_ the ghost hollered through its integrated communication array.

Response took a long time and was horribly static, but the Ghost could make out parts.

" _Yes. Still here and alive. You have something?"_ Augur responded.

Ghost took a fast trip throught it's surroundings, measuring and taking in details. The room was cramped, much like a tube. Throught the middle ran a massive railing that overlooked the areas below. The rest was too murky.

" _Try and reroute power to grid K97."_ the Ghost instructed.

The instruction was soon followed by a clear humming and sputtering much like air purification or rotors, the lights followed next. Ghost looked below and although he had already gotten a good sense what lay below, the life that had returned to the room made it much more impressive.

" _Augur. I think your friends are far more reckless than I might have imagined."_ Ghost morbidly stated into the comms.

Ghost swooped throught the ruby coloured blood cocoons hooked into the cables that littered the room. Some had been smashed and leaked morbid mechanical innards and fluids, others were intact. Both Ghost and Augur had wagered that survivors in the Sea would have been scarce, what was found instead was a place of life. A refuge that held almost three platoons worth of Warumathans.

" _You might want to get down here, Augur. Right now!"_ Ghost said and started his work on thawing the first promising cocoon.


End file.
